Mobile devices are small electronic computing devices often referred to as personal digital assistants. One such mobile device is sold under the trade name Handheld PC (or "H/PC") by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. While a wide variety of computing tasks and applications can be performed by such mobile devices, personal information managers (PIMs) are particularly well suited to mobile devices.
PIMs typically comprise applications which enable the user of the mobile device to better manage scheduling and communications, and other such tasks. Some commonly available PIMs include scheduling and calendar programs, task lists, address books, electronic mail (e-mail) programs, and clock programs which allow the user to set alarms to be actuated at certain times of the day. Some commonly commercially available PIMs are sold under the brand names Microsoft Schedule+ and Microsoft Outlook and are commercially available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.
It is also common for mobile devices to be used in conjunction with a desktop computer. For example, the user of a mobile device may also have access to, and use, a desktop computer at work, at home, or both. A user may typically run the same types of PIMs on both the desktop computer and the mobile device (although the particular versions of the PIMs may be somewhat different from the desktop computer to the mobile device). Thus, it is quite advantageous for the mobile device to be designed to be couplable to the desktop computer to exchange information with, and share information with, the mobile device.
The user may also typically make changes to the PIMs both on the mobile device, and at the desktop. Therefore, it is advantageous for the PIMs on both the mobile device and the desktop to contain the most up-to-date information, regardless of whether recent changes to the PIMs have been made on the mobile device or the desktop computer. The process of coupling the mobile device with the desktop computer, and integrating the information stored by the PIMs on the mobile device and the desktop computer such that the two contain the same updated information is referred to as synchronization.
Conventional PIMs which support electronic calendaring and scheduling features (collectively referred to as a scheduler, or as a scheduling application) are traditionally supported on desktop computers. Such PIMs provide the ability of the user to schedule a meeting request for one or more desired attendees. Such PIMs also typically allow the user to enter appointments on a calendar, and to set user notifications related to the appointments. For instance, some PIMs allow the user to set a notification which notifies the user audibly, visually, or both, of an impending meeting. Such PIMs also conventionally support clock programming which allows the user to enter alarms which can be conveyed to the user at certain times of the day. Such alarms, as with appointment notifications, typically provide the user with either audible or visual indicia, or both, at a specified time during the day. The user notifications related to appointments or calendaring and clock events are referred to herein as clock and calendar notifications.
Significant obstacles present themselves in attempting to implement an efficient and versatile clock and calendar notification system on a mobile device. Mobile devices are typically battery powered and have significantly limited memory capacity relative to desktop or laptop computers. It is not uncommon for users of mobile devices to have several appointments each day (all of which would desirably carry with them a corresponding user notification) and to set several clock alarms each day. Maintaining clock and calendar notifications for such a user would consume an undesirably high amount of memory and power, even if only maintaining such notifications several weeks into the future (much less several months or years into the future).